Light Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of American Revolution

In Light Horse Harry Lee, Charles Royster tells the story of a man whose career embodies the visionary promises that inspired the American Revolution, as well as the inability of the revolutionary generation to put all its ideals into practice. The man is Henry Lee—soldier (nicknamed “Light-Horse Harry Lee”), statesmen, landowner, historian of the young republic, member of one of the oldest and most eminent families of Virginia—who throughout his life endeavored to realize his dream of a free and prosperous America. Brilliantly examining Lee’s ambitions and achievements, Mr. Royster makes us see how, both during the war and afterward, Lee continually risked himself in the service of his vision and how again and again he failed to win the victories he sought. He shows us Lee as a young officer in the Revolution, fighting valorously and skillfully, earning renown as a patriot and a military genius—but leaving the Continental Army before the war’s end, sickened by the violence of battle and disheartened by his helplessness to mitigate it. After the war, we see Lee determined to play a central role in the new nation’s peaceful growth—serving in Congress and as governor of Virginia, promoting expansion and development through his own private business ventures. And we watch as Lee’s desperate pursuit of wealth and order for America ends tragically: in his political defeat, bankruptcy, and exile from the land he fought to free. Tracing Lee’s struggles and reverses in his efforts to implement the promises of the Revolution—in his defense of the union, his opposition to Jeffersonian Republicans, his investments in land, his repeated warnings against war—Mr. Royster shows how, in extreme form, Lee exemplified in his strivings the public aspirations of America’s most politically creative era, as well as his generations collective failure to attain its vision of national grandeur and individual happiness. And it is this failure and the resultant disappointment, Mr. Royster argues, that in large part opened the way to disagreements over the nature of the Union, culminating, finally, in the Civil War—in which the South was led by Light-Horse Harry Lee’s son, Robert E. Lee.

Takes an ingenious, creative approach in his consideration of the life of one of the American Revolution's heroes. Charles Royster argues that Lee's tragic life was different only in degree from those of many other patriots of the Revolution who viewed the peacetime fruits of their efforts with disappointment. In Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution, Charles Royster takes an ingenious, creative approach in his consideration of the life of one of the American Revolution's heroes. Having fought valiantly to bring about a victory for the colonies, Henry (""Light-Horse Harry"") Lee (1756-1818) envisioned the new country as a virtuous and prosperous classical republic and eventually aligned himself with the Federalist party. He served as governor of Virginia and as a congressman, but he grew increasingly isolated, disillusioned, and bitter as the nation moved in a direction more in line with the Jeffersonian democratic principles. After going bankrupt and then suffering an attack by an angry mob, Lee exiled himself to the West Indies to escape his debts and save his family's honor (including that of his son, the future General Robert E. Lee) and returned to the United States only several weeks before his death. Royster argues that Lee's tragic life was different only in degree from those of many other patriots of the Revolution who viewed the peacetime fruits of their efforts with disappointment. How Lee, and others like him, shaped the American Revolution and were shaped by it is the theme of this provocative character study.